Ice Climbing in New Brunswick 1/4 – Mt. Misery

I know it’s hard to feel any regret that winter’s on its way out with the weather we’ve been having. The snow is melting, I can see tulips waiting in the wings for that first really warm day to pop up through the soil. On the West Coast it’s been spring since long before the winter Olympics. But I want to take this last chance to show some photos from my new hobby: ice climbing.

I had the opportunity to get out with some great teachers and climbers at the very end of this year’s season, but it was just enough for me to get hooked, and to get some great photos (and a video which will be ready for the public very soon).

Jan 23, 2010 – Mt. Misery, NB

 

Mt. Misery

 

In January I had my introduction to the world of ice climbing.  We walked across the frozen Kennebecasis River to a place that goes by the (totally reassuring) name of Mount Misery.

 

Graham Waugh

 

I was told that ice climbing is usually very cold, and you have to ‘brave the elements’.  If these are the ‘elements,’ that’s fine by me.

 

ice

 

The ice forms where the rock would typically be very wet in the summer. 

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Ice Climbing in New Brunswick 2/4 – Truancy Falls

Feb 11, 2010 – Truancy Falls, NB

Truancy Falls

Graham told me about this pillar, and that I should really be there to film it when they climbed. Of course, I had no interest in climbing it myself. This was pretty advanced stuff, so I was happy to stay on the “ground.”

The Magnet of the Tobeatic

I am slowly working through a backlog of photos that I want to share.  This post, I feel, is my first attempt to actually bring us up to the present.  From September 27th – October 3rd, I was on a men’s canoe trip with nine other men in the most mystical of places, the Great Tobeatic Wilderness.  Quite by chance, we traced the identical route taken by myself and the Whynots in April of this year, but I could trace it a thousand times over and still find wonderous new things, and discover that sense of adventure all over again.

Day 1: Jim Charles Point

Jim Charles Point

We started our trip, interestingly enough, on Jim Charles Point.  The next morning, we drove around to Eel Weir instead of crossing Kejimkujik Lake because of high winds.

Day 2: Eel Weir

High Winds on Keji

It was noon before we set out from Eel weir,

The Magnet of the Tobeatic – Part II

Day 4 – Sisketch Lake

Day 4 began early on Sisketch Lake.  Brian and I had risen early and decided to take a morning paddle through the silent giants in the morning mist and watch the sunrise from the lake.  Words can’t describe this beauty, so here’s a collection of photos from the Sisketch Sunrise:

First, I’ll start with some photos from the nighttime.  These are about 20 second exposures with the moonlight hitting the rocks and trees.

Midnight Moonlight

Midnight Moonlight

The Magnet of the Tobeatic – Part III

Day 5 – Junction Lake

We start our day on Junction Lake and as we set out, Brian gives us an inspirational reading from the shore.

Thought of the Day

We visited the point where the current county lines (Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queens and Digby) converge. 

Magnet of the Tobeatic – Part IV

Day 6 – Mink Lake

My Solo Spot

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 1

Boundary Rock Expedition 2009

April 11 – 15, 2009

Paul “Tetris” Maybee

Cody “Eddie” Whynot

Rob “Scout” Whynot

Ryan “Rhynot” Whynot

The now five-day trip in search of Boundary Rock starts in Liverpool at the Whynots’ residence -well… on the way to Liverpool that is.  We drove from Halifax to Liverpool in the afternoon of Friday, April 10th – Good Friday.  We got as far as Blockhouse when I realized that I had forgotten the dehydrated broth to my chicken stew.  This may seem like a small setback, but I had spent days on my broth, and it was pretty important for me to get it back.  One solution would have been stopping somewhere and picking up some chicken bouillon, except that it was Good Friday and everything was closed, not to mention it wouldn’t have tasted anything like the broth I had worked so hard on.

Packing

So I called my wife Mikey to see if she could get the broth to a bus station.  The website was useless and the office was closed, but still she managed to find a bus heading down and got the broth on board.  My hero!  The bus came in just after 8 and once again, all seemed to be going according to plan…

Parcel for me!

Broth

We finished up packing and played a few rounds of pool and went to bed.

Pool game

Bed

Goodnight Moon

An excerpt from my journal, April 10th, 2009

“The 8 day trip is now 5 days and goes down the Roseway instead of back up to Keji, but I’m feeling prepared and I think it should be a beautiful trip.  There will be some wild water, but we’re not taking any chances.  Here’s to Finding (or at least searching for) Boundary Rock”.

Day 1

Saturday, April 11th, 2009:  Liverpool, NS

Load up in the rain

We start day 1 in Liverpool, and in true Nova Scotia fashion, it is raining.  So we gear up and pack the truck.  The next thing we realize is that we’re short on paddles.  It seems at this point that we’ll never be on the water.  We go to every hardware store around looking for paddles and eventually find enough to head out.  We load up and hit the road.  FINALLY!  But we’re only 45 minutes behind schedule, which isn’t too bad, I guess.

The Intrepid Explorers

We couldn’t get to George’s Lake because of a gate, so we set out from Merrymekedge Beach.  Here’s the last photo of us before we set out across Keji Lake.

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 2

Day 2

Sunday, April 12th, 2009: Peskawa Lake

Good Morning Peskawa

Windy Lakes

High Water

The Decision

An excerpt from my journal: April 12, 2009

“Today was a real turning point for the trip. I woke up at 6:30 and stoked the fire while outside, the wind howled through the bare trees. The news outside was not promising for this trip. There were white caps and a strong wind blasting us from the North West. We took our time with breakfast in the Warden’s cabin and savored the luxury of being warm, dry and safe from the storm outside.”

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 3

Day 3

Monday April 13th, 2009: Sisketch Lake

Allow me to just show again what the campsite looked like when we arrived, just to make very clear the contrast to what we saw when we awoke the next day.

Sisketch Camp at arrival

Sisketch Camp an hour later

Sisketch Camp this morning

So that’s what I saw when I woke up the next day. A far cry from the starry night we saw last night. I eventually won the long battle with the wetness and got a fire going (as I was the first one up again) and looked around at the snow covered world that awaited us. What would this mean for our search for the rock? What about canoeing? I’ve never been canoeing anytime other than the summer. At one point the clouds were thinning and I did get a glimpse of the sun trying to beat it’s way through the clouds.

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 4

Day 4

Tuesday April 14th, 2009: Junction Lake

This morning we wake up to what would appear to be- though I’m hesistant to say so this time- a very nice day.  Since I am the only one who enjoys the early morning I get the fire going again and make some coffee and cardamom buckwheat pancakes with real maple syrop.  We got a text from Mr. Whynot saying he would pick us up at Upset Falls instead of Indian Fields, which buys us some more time, and so the plan this morning is to take a few hours to look for the rock before setting out for the bottom half of our trip.  That’s right, we got a text.  Rob’s phone was able to send and receive text messages even from Junction Lake, the middle of the Nova Scotian wilderness.  That’s good to know for future reference, but not something anyone should count on.  The good news is, we’ve got a little more time and it’s all downstream from here.

Junction Lake Morning

Breakfast in the Sunshine

Overnight, something interesting had happened.  We got a really cold snap because of the clear night and all of the dead branches seemed to be freeze dried in the morning.  They were easy to just snap off or the morning’s fire.  This was the easiest it’s been to keep a fire going yet.  With the first day being rain, and the two days after that having constant snow, this was a real treat.